Today was also a funny school. I was back in Fukuoka where the Board of Education basically decided to do English, but leaves it up to each school. So in today’s school the Headteacher decided she wanted to do it, but needed some help with getting the teachers willing and able to do it! So…

Today was an interesting school in that when I was looking through their curriculum, I wasn’t cringing every two minutes, there weren’t any mistakes ( a very rare thing!), and there were actually some funky things in there, such as a nice reply to “I want to be a (job name)..”, “Why?” “Because it’s cool”….

Wow a day off! Which roughly translated means I spent till 2 PM catching up on my emails, then took the Shinkansen down to Aichi for a meeting with the teacher from tomorrow’s school. Then got hassled at the hotel for not having my passport on me, there are still some racist nutters out there,…

Today was a bit of an experiment! Instead of a free one hour workshop at the bookstore, today was a 6 hour workshop charged at 10,000 yen per person. The idea being that people who are serious about improving their teaching techniques would attend, and I wouldn’t have to spend half the time doing the…

OK, that was one too many beers last night! Today I traveled over a thousand miles, from Oita in Kyushu, to Okayama then to Tokyo, and I must admit I didn’t enjoy one minute of the ride!!! But for the actual workshops themselves I flicked the switch, became genki and really enjoyed them. It’s my…

When I do the shows or workshops, as a trick to get the teachers, and kids, to speak louder I always say things like “Oh, but in Okayama yesterday they were so much louder” and it works like magic. And people always ask where the best places are. To be honest the best kids have…